Ridley Scott Casts Doubt On The Future Of Alien: “I Think The Beast Has Almost Run Out”

Even with a global haul in excess of $240 million, it’s fair to say that Alien: Covenant didn’t light up the box office in the way Fox would have hoped.

This, coupled with the mixed reviews, led many to write off Covenant as another one of 2017’s high-profile bombs – heck, last we reported, 20th Century Fox had even pumped the brakes on Ridley Scott’s sequel plans in order to “reassess” the Alien franchise. All in all, the horror icon isn’t exactly in good shape, and barring a sudden change of heart, it’s unlikely that Ridley Scott’s Covenant sequel will get off the ground anytime soon.

And though he didn’t explicitly address those franchise plans, the esteemed director recently took part in a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he recalled his decision to direct Alien: Covenant and leave Blade Runner 2049 in the capable hands of Denis Villeneuve.

With multiple projects in the works at any given time – Ridley Scott also produces through his Scott Free banner, with his latest credit coming from Murder On the Orient Express – the director admitted that he was simply too busy to helm both sci-fi sequels. But when it comes to expanding his Prometheus saga, Scott seemingly cast doubt on the future of Alien, noting that “the beast has almost run out.”

It was a crossfire of too much business. I’m doing a lot of TV and films – there are six films going out this year. I figured it was a good piece of business to follow through Prometheus, which, from ground zero, had good lift-off. So we went to Covenant to perpetuate the idea and [revive] the franchise of the Alien. I think the beast has almost run out, personally. [On 2049] You’ve got to come in with something else – you’ve got to replace that. And on Blade Runner, I think Denis was a fantastic choice.

Truth be told, Scott has been dismissive of the Xenomorph in the past (“the beast is done…cooked”) only to reintroduce H.R. Giger’s serpentine killer further down the road, so we wouldn’t read into these comments too much.

Still, the future of Alien is up in the air, and until we have more information for you to peruse, you can chime in with your own thoughts and predictions via the comments.